Pick

Various Disco Not Disco: 1974-1986

• Words: Dave Segal
• Label: Strut
• XLR8R Rating: 9/10

Strut’s Disco Not Disco compilations posit that the genre is anything but one-dimensional. The 14 tracks here range widely and rewardingly over the styles referenced in its title. The lineup favors U.S. and U.K. artists, but Japan (YMO), Belgium (Kazino), and Germany (Liaisons Dangereuses, whose tough, clipped electro was huge in Detroit clubs) are represented, too. Brits like Delta 5 and Vivien Goldman rely on elastic, buoyant basslines to move crowds and imprint their skewed, Caucasoid funk indelibly in your memory, while Konk, Material, and James White & The Blacks (August Darnell's sleek disco remix of "Contort Yourself") add multi-culti NYC flavor. Interestingly, the madly intricate jazz fusion of Isotope's "Crunch Cake" is the best–and least "disco"–cut here.